Pack Expo observations; variable frequency drives; Schneider Electric changes; having great panel discussions.

News from Automation Fair including new products and important announcements on software direction.

News from the ISA Expo in Houston. Developments in wireless sensor networks.

News from the Emerson Exchange on wireless and from MESA International on Metrics Matter.

Gary interviews Carter Johnson, vice president of Visiprise and conference chair of the MESA International Plant2Enterprise conference that will be held October 9-12 at the Disney Coronado Springs Resort in Orlando.

Production performance management and manufacturing intelligence. Empower operators to operate a plant profitably. Organize for the 21st century. Adobe version 8 3D and Connect.

eMvoy, a new company that offers nationwide rating of manufacturers searchable by location or category. OMAC comments and questions. New book "Thinking for a Living" about managing knowledge workers.

Trip reports on Profibus (PTO) annual meeting in Phoenix, National Instruments' NI Week and trip to Emerson Process. News from Automation Federation, HMS and general fieldbus thoughts.

Interview with John Ross of Citect
Dealing with Darwin
Guns, Germs and Steel
IAONA disbands
See you at Profibus Annual Meeting in Phoenix
Control cover story on Fighting the Fieldbus Wars -- really it's no longer war, just competition

Return from Alaska; ARC Forum; OPC UA spec released along with vendor support; Siemens and Emerson work for interoperability plus challenge to ODVA; manufacturing analysis-GM, Ford, Airbus;
Schneider, Invensys, MESA conferences; send ideas for 2007 coverage.

Honeywell Users Group and Rockwell Automation RSTechEd. Editor ethics, process control systems forum and energy harvesting device to charge batteries.

Reports on GE Fanuc and Siemens users groups, on demand computing and mobile applications.

Gary Mintchell's Automation Minutes including further notes on news from Hannover, MES/HMI and PLM combination, ISA standards updates, the ABB users conference and the Packaging Automation Forum.

Report on Boston trip for Invensys InFusion announcement. Report from Hannover Fair.

Not an April Fools joke, but ruminations on some market forces affecting automation professionals. Also announcing my upcoming trip to the Hannover Fair and thoughts on the Automation Federation (what, no AA 12-step jokes?).

Another edition of Gary Mintchell's Automation Minutes. News on important software survey, notes on standards, thoughts for marketing people, innovation and adoption of technology.

News and views from the world of automation from the editor in chief of Automation World magazine. Includes discussion of software interoperability and some Linux and Java thoughts.

Live from the ARC Forum in Orlando, Rockwell Sr. VP of Global Industry Solutions Keiran Coulton discusses his new role and the company's emphasis on vertical industry solutions.

Sitting in for Gary Mintchell, Dave Newcorn speaks with P&G's open architecture evangelist, Dave Chappell, direct from Italy, on the results of the Make2Pack meeting held earlier in the day with about 40 Italian packaging machinery OEMs. Chappell talks about the implications of Make2Pack for all machine builders, both foreign and domestic, as well as end users.

Some marketers "get it" and some don't. I just had a meeting with Bengt and Victoria from the Swedish HMI manufacturer Beijer, and they "get it." That is, they understand where automation is today and how to build a smart company.

Many executives are moaning about the coming loss of expertise as baby boomers retire taking all their knowledge with them. As Dorothy Leonard details in her books "Wellsprings of Knowledge" and "Deep Smarts" they really should be building a learning organization and building their knowledge pools to avoid that disaster.

Manufacturing software industry consolidation took a new turn last week as Gary Mintchell describes in this podcast. Not only was one company acquired, but a venture firm took an equity stake in another company and raised the bidding for a third. RSS has had a tremendous impact on the way information flows over the Web. Shouldn’t manufacturing software suppliers be looking at this technology as well?